Personnel/cargo nets have been used extensively by the offshore oil-drilling industry to transfer personnel and cargo between boats and offshore oil rigs. The Billy Pugh Co. of Corpus Christi, Texas manufactures the most commercially acceptable personnel/cargo net in the industry. The Billy Pugh personnel/cargo net is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,745 which is herein incorporated by reference.
Personnel/cargo nets are constructed generally of a top spreader ring, and a bottom spreader ring with rope lattice-work between the rings. The bottom spreader ring has a rope lattice base and a cushioning device. Personnel being transferred from ships to oil rigs stand on the cushion while holding onto the lattice work of the net. Such nets have served the oil industry well.
In recent years the price of oil has become depressed, and the uncertainty in the market has led to a large turnover of oil-rig employees. New employees are unfamiliar with the oil-rig environment and their lack of experience manifests itself in the type of injuries they sustain in being transferred from rig to boat, or vice versa, with personnel/cargo nets.
It is therefore an object of the invention to include structure in the base spreader ring of a personnel/cargo net to reduce the number of injuries occurring in using such nets.